The present invention relates to computer peripheral devices and more particularly to an apparatus for transferring photographic slides from a projector tray to storage bins, magazines or cartridges automatically under computer control.
Prior devices exist for automating some slide handling functions. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,249,329, "Apparatus for Viewing and Sorting Photographic Slide Transparencies," granted on Feb. 10, 1981 to Owen L. Lamb, there is described an apparatus for sorting photographic slides into storage bins. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,338,738, "Slide Previewer and Tray Loader," granted on July 13, 1982 to Owen L. Lamb, there is described a mechanism by which slides are loaded into compartments of a circular slide tray.
In the above-identified U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,373 there is described an apparatus for storing slides in slide receptacles that may be either storage bins in which slides are stored horizontally or compartments of a projector tray in which slides are stored vertically. This is accomplished by providing a movable turntable having a plurality of slide bins or a circular slide projector tray thereon. A hopper holds a group of slides in a stack above the turntable, and delivers slides one by one to a position above the sorting table. Each individual slide within the stack is identified by generating an accession number for each slide as the slide is delivered from the hopper. The accession number may be derived from the relative position of the slide within the stack or may be derived from a number read from a coded label on the slide mount. A computer utilizes the slide's accession number in accordance with a sorting algorithm to move the turntable to position a particular slide receptacle relative to the slide's position above the turntable.
In the above-identified U.S. Pat. No. 4,776,689 there is described a slide magazine that can be used in the computer-controlled automatic slide archival storage and retrieval system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,373.
These prior devices do not provide for the returning to archival storage of slides after projection, that is, unloading a projector tray.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide a computer-controlled automatic slide transferring system which will enable one to rapidly transfer slides from projector trays to a storage place for future retrieval of the slides and provide a computer record of where each slide is stored.